Kindergarten PBL

Eat This, Not That

Entry Event:

Sister Sue, from Earthworks, asked Kindergartners to learn more about healthy ingredients they could put into a granola bar. They then decided to promote and sell the healthy granola bars.

Driving Question:

How can we, as Kindergartners, get others to eat healthy?

Standards:

HW.K.8 2007 - Students will demonstrate the ability to advocate for personal, family and community health.

EL.K.7.1 2006Understand and follow one- and two-step spoken directions.
EL.K.7.2 2006Share information and ideas, speaking in complete, coherent sentences.
EL.K.5.1 2006Draw pictures and write words for a specific reason.

Project Overview:

Students will learn about healthy foods and decide which ingredients would be good to include in a healthy granola bar. They will then advertise this bar and sell it at the WDA Health Fair and Earthworks Market.

Into the Woods

Driving Question:

How can we learn about the animals living around us?

Standards:

K.W.2 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

SCI.K.3.1 Observe and draw physical features of common plants and animals.

SCI.K.3.2 Describe and compare living animals in terms of shape, texture of body coverings, size, weight, color, and the way they move.

Project Overview:

Students will be challenged to compare different animals by where they live, their shapes, texture of body coverings, and the way they move. They will organize a fund raiser to make money for our school to adopt an animal from the Potawatomi Zoo. Nature walks and making observations will be a big part of this project.

Entry Event:

Students were taken on a nature walk around the school grounds and asked to make observations. They had questions about the animals that lived there and want to investigate the animals that made footprints in the soil.

On the Move!

Driving Question:
How Do We Get From Here to There?

Standards:
SS.K.3.2 2007The World in Spatial Terms: Identify maps and globes as ways of representing Earth, and understand the basic difference between a map and a globe.

SS.K.3.1 2007The World in Spatial Terms: Use words related to location, direction, and distance, including here/there, over/under, left/right, above/below, forward/backward and between.

Example: Give and follow simple navigational directions such as walk forward ten steps, turn right and walk between the desks.

Project Overview:

Students will investigate different forms of transportation that are used in Plymouth Community.

Where is Nemo?

Driving Question:
What lives in or around the ocean?

Standards:

K.3.1 The World in Spatial Terms: Use words related to location , direction , and distance, including here/there, over.under. left/right, above/below, forward/backward and between.

K.3.2-SS The World in Spacial terms:Identify maps and globes as ways of representing Earth and understand the basic differences between a map and a globe.

K.1.1 Raise questions about the natural world.

K.4.1 Give Examples of plants and animals

K.4.2 Observe plants and animals. Describe how they are alike and different.

Project Overview:
Students will leave about the ocean and animals that learn there. They will be creating a diorama and writing a report about what they have learned.
A scuba diver swan through our rooms looking for Nemo. We followed the scuba diver into Mrs. Poor's room where the diver presented our students with the questions "Where is Nemo?" and asked our students if they could help find him.

Seasonal Celebrations

Driving Question:

What are the seasons and what holidays do we celebrate in each season?

Standards:

SS.K.1.2 Identify celebrations and holidays as a way of remembering and honoring people, events, and America's ethnic heritage.

SS.K.3.5 Physical Systems: Describe and give examples of seasonal weather changes and illustrate how weather affects people and the environment.

SS.K.1.4 Chronological Thinking: Identify and order events that take place in a sequence.

Project Idea: Students will learn about the four seasons and the celebrations in each season.

Students' holiday cards available for purchase at Dorothy's Hallmark Shop in Plymouth.

Dorothy's Hallmark Shop, in Plymouth, is publishing and selling holiday cards made by our very own WDA's kindergarten students! Several students were there for the unveiling of the cards Saturday. Proceeds from the sale of the cards will be donated to Shop With a Cop and Riley Children's Hospital. We will present a check to our charities this Thursday, December 6th, so please check out the cards at Dorothy's Hallmark shop this week.

Seasonal Celebrations
Students are learning about the four seasons. They are learning which celebrations occur during each season and how the seasons and celebrations differ around the world. The students are decorating four large trees to match the four seasons. They will skype with students from a classroom in Canada and compare the two countries.
They will be visited by authentic Native Americans who will share stories, songs, and dances as they tell the children about the first Thanksgiving. The students will then reenact a traditional a traditional Thanksgiving feast.

Community Helper PBL project

Driving Question:
Who are the helpers in our community, where do they work, and how do they help us?
Standards:
K.W.2 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.
SS.K.2.1 Give examples of people who are community helpers and leaders and describe how they help us.
SS.K.4.2 Identify and describe different kinds of jobs that people do and the tools or equipment used in these jobs.
Project Idea: Students will learn about how we help each other in the classroom, at home, and in the community. They will discover the many community helpers in our community by reading about them, having them visit our school, and by taking a community helper walk around town. They will then invite other community helpers to our school for a job fair.

Community Helpers - Who are you going to call?

After Tuesday's fire drill, Kindergarten students were surprised with the arrival of a fire engine! Firefighter George Cook and Fire Chief Rodney Miller asked the students to create a book to showcase community helpers from Plymouth. Students learned a little about firefighters, the fire truck, and what it means to be a community helper. They were also invited to visit the fire station to see where the fire fighters and trucks "live".

2012-2013 School Year
Kindergarten's 1st PBL project is "We Are Special".

Students are learning what is special about Washington Discovery Academy, each other, and themselves. We took a tour of our school and met very special people in our building along the way. Students took pictures of our secretary (Mrs. Bartholomew), Principal (Mr. Hartley), Nurse Eiler, Social Worker (Mrs. Lewis), custodian (Mr. Soria), and many other teachers. We will post these pictures on a map of our building. Students have really enjoyed their first two days of school and learning about their new environment and friends.

2011-2012 Kindergarten PBL Projects

Eat This, Not That PBL project

Making the bars in Earthworks kitchen

Kindergarten has been learning about the food groups and making healthy choices. We have partnered with Earthworks and 2nd grade to design our very own healthy granola bar.

We started by asking the kids about their favorite foods and where food comes from. Then we learned about the different food groups and Choose My Plate. Earthworks came in and taught us about different ingredients we could use and helped us make our first batch of bars. The kids voted on their favorite of three bars. Sister Sue from Earthworks brought in new ingredients to add to our "favorite" base bar and we made three NEW batches! The kids all liked these and we met a few parents and kids at the commercial kitchen at Earthworks' store to bake bars to sell. The kids voted on the name, "Discovery Bars". One student called them this because you "you had to take a bite to discover what's inside".

We sold the Discovery Bars at Earthworks Saturday, April 21st and will be selling them again on Saturday, May 5th and on our upcoming parent night at Washington. The money will pay back Earthworks for ingredients and any profits will help fund future PBL projects.

Kindergarten and Project-Based Learning

At the Washington Discovery Academy, we believe that through project based learning techniques, technology, and hands-on activities, your students will be able to learn concepts in a more meaningful way. So, what is Project Based Learning?

Driving question or challenge
Need to know
Inquiry & Innovation
Using 21st Century Skills
Student voice & choice
Feedback & revision
Publicly presented product

Community Helpers - Exploring the Plymouth Community

Social Studies Standards:

K.2.1 Give examples of people who are community helpers and leaders and describe how they help us.

K.3.3 Locate and describe places in the school and community.

K.4.2 Identify and describe different kinds of jobs the people do and the tools or equipment used in these jobs.

K.4.3 Explain why people in a community choose different jobs.

ELA Common Core Standards:

K.4.6 Ask how and why questions about a topic of interest.

K.4.7 Begin gathering information f

After generating a list of community helpers, we embarked on our community walk to explore jobs in Plymouth and discover answers to our questions. We learned about the skills, training, and education that people need for their jobs and the tools that they use. We used digital cameras and interviewing skills to get the answers to our questions.

Click the Kindergarten Connection button below to see more about our projects.

Kindergarten Connection

Educators & Advisors

The following teachers have been and will continually be trained by the principles of the
Buck Institute For Education for best practices using project-based learning techniques.